I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

Mark Ratner:I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

Well you need to read up on the Rosicrucians, the Knights Templar, and Leif Ericsson. Then it's clear and obvious.

Mark Ratner:I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

I think the slave labor thing is under debate now, but yeah there's nothing about them that required "ancient aliens". It's just a BS show made for "entertainment" though, gets better ratings than actually showing something educational.

Debate? It's not under debate- it's pure farce. The Egyptians kept slaves, but they wouldn't have trusted slaves with the important work of building the Pyramids. During flood seasons, the Egyptians had a lot of farmers with nothing to do.

//And the slaves they had were almost certainly not Jews. The only source for that claim is the Bible. While there were certainly a handful of Hebrew slaves, the whole Charlton Heston thing is bunkum.

Mark Ratner:I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

Last I read up on it, many of the pyramids were built by ordinary Egyptian citizens as a form of tax payment...Folks would have to go work on the pyramids for the pharaoh during breaks in the agricultural cycle, but during the rest of the year were free men working on their own farms.

Hand Banana:Mark Ratner: I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

I think the slave labor thing is under debate now, but yeah there's nothing about them that required "ancient aliens". It's just a BS show made for "entertainment" though, gets better ratings than actually showing something educational.

Yeah, I've heard the theory that it was an honor to work on the pyramids, so maybe it wasn't all slave labor, but who knows.

Bonzo_1116:Last I read up on it, many of the pyramids were built by ordinary Egyptian citizens as a form of tax payment...Folks would have to go work on the pyramids for the pharaoh during breaks in the agricultural cycle, but during the rest of the year were free men working on their own farms.

And remember, those people working were fed beer. Mead-like, thick and sour beer, but beer!

theorellior:Bonzo_1116: Last I read up on it, many of the pyramids were built by ordinary Egyptian citizens as a form of tax payment...Folks would have to go work on the pyramids for the pharaoh during breaks in the agricultural cycle, but during the rest of the year were free men working on their own farms.

And remember, those people working were fed beer. Mead-like, thick and sour beer, but beer!

Beer, raw onions, and bread. The farts on the jobsite must have been epic.

t3knomanser:Mark Ratner: You're saying they didn't use slaves to drag the 4 ton bricks up the pyramid?

Yes. The belief that slaves were used essentially arises from a failure of imagination on the part of the Greeks. The Greeks relied heavily on slave labor for pretty much everything they did, and as a result, they assumed the same of others. Workers graveyards near the construction sites, and what surviving documentation we have indicates that slaves were not used.

Also, you wouldn't want unskilled laborers moving 16,000kg blocks around. That's a good way to kill all of your unskilled laborers.

Yeah, I've been reading about theories here in the last 10 minutes or so. I wasn't taught this shiat back in school. Just like the phillipine "tasaday," it was all bullshiat.

theorellior:Bonzo_1116: Last I read up on it, many of the pyramids were built by ordinary Egyptian citizens as a form of tax payment...Folks would have to go work on the pyramids for the pharaoh during breaks in the agricultural cycle, but during the rest of the year were free men working on their own farms.

And remember, those people working were fed beer. Mead-like, thick and sour beer, but beer!

And one of those Egyptian labor groups actually called themselves the "Drunkards of Menkaure."

Yakivegas:theorellior: Bonzo_1116: Beer, raw onions, and bread. The farts on the jobsite must have been epic.

Hell, you could have used the backpressure to move those 16,0000 kg blocks of stone.

Would you be interested in hosting a History Channel special?

I can see it now: EMISSIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. We could do a segment on the Pyramid workers, what kind of gas lark's tongue in aspic would give you, whether the Yellow Emperor Dutch-ovened his concubines, and how the authors of the Kama Sutra dealt with a fiber-heavy diet.

theorellior:Yakivegas: theorellior: Bonzo_1116: Beer, raw onions, and bread. The farts on the jobsite must have been epic.

Hell, you could have used the backpressure to move those 16,0000 kg blocks of stone.

Would you be interested in hosting a History Channel special?

I can see it now: EMISSIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. We could do a segment on the Pyramid workers, what kind of gas lark's tongue in aspic would give you, whether the Yellow Emperor Dutch-ovened his concubines, and how the authors of the Kama Sutra dealt with a fiber-heavy diet.

Mark Ratner:I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

theorellior:Yakivegas: theorellior: Bonzo_1116: Beer, raw onions, and bread. The farts on the jobsite must have been epic.

Hell, you could have used the backpressure to move those 16,0000 kg blocks of stone.

Would you be interested in hosting a History Channel special?

I can see it now: EMISSIONS OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. We could do a segment on the Pyramid workers, what kind of gas lark's tongue in aspic would give you, whether the Yellow Emperor Dutch-ovened his concubines, and how the authors of the Kama Sutra dealt with a fiber-heavy diet.

And we'd all watch it. There are probably enough historical bits floating around to put a one-hour show together. Poop humor is one of the oldest kinds that endures to even this day.

As someone above mentioned it is how they reflect the position of certain stars. In addition to that how precise some of the stuff is with the pyramids of Giza (can't remember what the "stuff" is, but I think it has to do with how symmetrical it is or angles or something) is highly improbable without some kind of tech that didn't exist.

t3knomanser:Mark Ratner: You're saying they didn't use slaves to drag the 4 ton bricks up the pyramid?

Yes. The belief that slaves were used essentially arises from a failure of imagination on the part of the Greeks. The Greeks relied heavily on slave labor for pretty much everything they did, and as a result, they assumed the same of others. Workers graveyards near the construction sites, and what surviving documentation we have indicates that slaves were not used.

Also, you wouldn't want unskilled laborers moving 16,000kg blocks around. That's a good way to kill all of your unskilled laborers.

Well, learn something new every day. Thanks guys. I'm in the 'always taught it was slave labor' camp till now.

Mark Ratner:I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave laborsweat equity during the flood season over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

Corrected that for you--others have noted it better, but pretty much all evidence points to the folks who built the pyramids actually being skilled labourers--during the flood periods where agriculture was essentially impossible, farmers voluntarily worked in pyramid construction, in no small part because the pharaoh was literally considered to be a benevolent god-emperor. And yes, they were paid for their labour, which was done as a form of "sweat equity" in lieu of taxes...in beer of all things, which frankly is more than the average contractor for the state DOT or water department gets nowadays :D

If you can imagine people farming most of the time, and when they CAN'T farm they work for the county public works department or as skilled labour helping folks build things...that's much closer to what was done by the Egyptians; the difference being it was a BIG public works project (bigger than the WPA or Civilian Conservation Corps) for what was seen as a bigger cause.

Great Porn Dragon:Mark Ratner: I don't get the alien/pyramid connection. They built the pyramids using slave labor sweat equity during the flood season over a period of many many years, refining their technique after screwing up (there are older pyramids which basically sucked.)

Corrected that for you--others have noted it better, but pretty much all evidence points to the folks who built the pyramids actually being skilled labourers--during the flood periods where agriculture was essentially impossible, farmers voluntarily worked in pyramid construction, in no small part because the pharaoh was literally considered to be a benevolent god-emperor. And yes, they were paid for their labour, which was done as a form of "sweat equity" in lieu of taxes...in beer of all things, which frankly is more than the average contractor for the state DOT or water department gets nowadays :D

If you can imagine people farming most of the time, and when they CAN'T farm they work for the county public works department or as skilled labour helping folks build things...that's much closer to what was done by the Egyptians; the difference being it was a BIG public works project (bigger than the WPA or Civilian Conservation Corps) for what was seen as a bigger cause.

Which is actually pretty friggin' awesome if you think about it :3

I know now. I wasn't taught that back in the day though. Makes me feel old and I'm not even 40 yet. One more reason to like fark.